"... and then, while I was running, I looked behind me to see how many undead were following me; I realised that I had left them all behind and turned my head and... ran face first into a tree. Next thing I remember, you're staring at me."

"Oh...-kay... are you feeling alright? Because... your head is not just a knock-out-button, you know? Banging into something so hard that you fall unconscious usually leaves you with a concussion", Salim said, slightly worried.

The two slowly made their way towards the cabin. The prospect of something to eat and a safe place to sleep had given Salim the strength to keep going and reassured him in his intend to help the author of the email and whomever else had gathered here.

"Are you sure? I've been hit on the head by a lot of things and... well, it hurts for a while, but that's about it", Twilight responded. "Maybe humans are just less resistant to this kind of thing."

"Huh." Salim decided to leave it at that. "So, how many others have followed the call for help?"

"Um.. well, there's Fluttershy, Rarity, AJ, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie... then Derpy, Colgate, Octavia... Shining Armor, Blossomforth... and me, of course; and then, there are the humans. Mac is the one who send this chain mail; there's Johnny, Brandon, Gibson, Travis, Cameron... and D. That makes 18... I think..."

"D? What kind of a name is that? Well, still better than 'Shining Armor', am I right?"

"Shining Armor's my brother."

"Oh."

"I just hope he's alright... I wonder if he and Blossomforth have already returned to the cabin. We were out- oh, uh, we're here."

They both came to a halt. Before them was the cabin. Not as well fortified as Salim had hoped, but still better than wandering about in the open.

"So... 18 people, huh? That's not bad. We can really stand a chance. Especially with the cure and everything. This guy - Mac? - he really has a cure, right?"

They continued walking towards the cabin.

"The cure... well, that's a bit complicated", she said as she knocked on the door.

*So... I skipped some dialogue between my character and Twilight, for three reasons. 1) I'm bad at writing introductions (I'm just an inexperienced writer in general) 2) It would be mostly just a repetition of stuff you already know 3) I don't really know how Twilight ended up in the forest. Something about a zombie attack, that's all I know; still have to read that part.

Also, am I overdoing it with the colour changes? Should I even use different colours while both characters are interacting with each other, or only when they're seperated?*

Mac looked towered the door and started to stand up, but hesitated as he felt his vision swim slightly. If whoever was at the door was unfriendly, he was in no condition to deal with them. "Hey, can someone get the door for me?"

"I know, I had a feeling you'd ask about Scoots being a Rouge" he said, cuting rainbow off, as he headed to the door. he opened the door to be greeted by a purple unicorn "ah Twilight Sparkle I presume your friends were getting worried," he said giving her a smile and looking up he sees a new human "and you brought a new one too if he is with you then he must be friendly enough" he said putting his dagger back in it's sheath on his wrist. "hey, everyone Twi's back!"

*Sidenote I have no idea what a Rogue would be in this zombie situation...*Dr. G took his hand off his gun at D's words. "Well It's good to see Twilight is back I'm sure Rarity will be Happy to see her." He said then thought about the story D was telling. A whole outpost seemed like a great idea but what if had been destroyed or worse. If Rarity had told Dr. G anything about Rainbow Dash she would want to Stay with the group and help save Equestria. He sighed audibly and went to greet the new comer.

*Rarity let Colgate hold her and Fluttershy and as she sobbed Rarity could feel Colgate's feelings of sadness. "Yes Darling we are real."

How did you both get here? Are we safe? Is anypony else with you?"Colgate asked looking Rarity and Fluttershy in the eye.

"Well pony wise we have Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Derpy, Pinkie Pie, and Octavia. and Human wise we have a few left as well. I heard that Dr. G was up to visit and I'm glad to see his IV helped bring you back. And as for How I got here I briefly shared that with you on the couch when you were first coming back." She Pulled out Dr. G's lab coat. "I don't know if this will remind you she said showing hr the bloody coat. But the short of it is that Dr. G after saving my life and I walked to this cabin from a land called Florida." Rarity said. Colgate looked at the lab coat and nodded.

"So I didn't dream up that story about the scissors and 10 stitches?"Colgate asked.

"No Darling that was real. But how exactly did you end up here? What happened to you back in Equestria when the worlds merged and this Plague took over?" Rarity inquired. (Maybe she will be able to tell me why she's so paranoid lately?) Rarity thought. Fluttershy nodded encouragingly to Colgate and offered her a sip of the strange juice by her table.

"Yay! Twilight's back!"Cheered Derpy as the Purple unicorn crossed the threshold. Derpy suddenly gasped."Twilight,"Derpy said in shock."you... you're a unicorn!"

"Yes Derpy," Said twilight as if talking to a child. "I'm a unicorn. I've always been a unicorn and, as far as I'm concerned I'll always be a unicorn. What were you expecting me to be? A manticore?"

"Oh, yeah! Right. Nevermind"muttered Derpy (I guess she's Twilight from the past, before she became an alicorn princess. Or I'm from the future. Either way better not say anything else about the future.)

"Nice to have you, back Twi!" said Brandon. He then noticed the stranger who came with her."Oh,hi stranger! Feel free to have some of what's left from dinner. Name's Brandon by the way."

D returned to the kitchen after letting Twi and her companion in and securing the door

"alright, so whats this about Scoots being a good Rouge?" Rainbow asked with confusion evident on her face

D nods and gives Twi and the new guy a quick summary of what he had said previous "and Rouge is an ATK class under the War type. my Outpost runs on a class/job system, there are three types War, Hand, and Land. War classes fight anyone or thing that would harm the Outpost and it's residents, Hand classes make what need to live from food to weapons, and Land classes gather or grow what the Hand classes need. Under War are three subtypes ATK kills, DEF distracts and protects, and Rest keeps everyone healthy and in good spirits. Rouges keep out of sight and quiet till a Def pulls aggro then it goes in for the kill."

Mac looked over to the new arrives and grinned. "Hey Twilight! We where getting worried! And as for you, stranger, thanks for getting our friend back to us in one piece. We have food here and if your hungry you have certainly earned a meal. Come on over and intoruce yourself, why don'tcha?"

Adding to D explanation. "As for you, you kids play too much Wold of Warcraft."

* * *

Colgate set aside the drink and nodded to Rarity. "OK, but its a long story and I don't know if I want to get into some of it right now, but..." She sighed and then began her story.

About two months before everything happened I was given a pretty substantial offer to sign on for a three month long, isolated research project. I was told it was being funded by a company trying to find a cure fora new strain of rabbis that hand been popping up in northern Equestria and that the company wanted us on sight for the full three months to avoid possible theft of date. I didn't think it was so strange since any group poring millions of bits into a new drug medication that is not being funded by the crown is going to be paranoid about losing money when a competitor swipes there research and patents it right from under there noises.

Anyway, the facility was topnotch, state of the art. In fact, thinking back on it I almost wonder if it was TOO state of the art. Some of the stuff they had in there looked much closer to human disguised then pony, but I didn't have anyway to know that till much ladder. Hindsight's 20-20 right? But ya, the place didn't seem at that from the surface, but they had dug out a half dozen levels for us to work, eat, sleep and even just relax in. It was pretty clear they were series about keeping us on sight for as long as the contract would allow.

So we worked. The hours were tough, but over all things where alright for us. The guard's they hired to "protect us and the date" took a bit of getting used to, but they didn't have much of a problem opening up to us and we all got along pretty well. The one strange thing was that there where different projects going on on different floors and we where told explicitly not to talk about them with one another or we would be fired without pay... though they put it "terminated without pay."

I don't like to think about the implication of that, not after what happened by the end...

Sorry, so as I said, there where these different projects going on, but all I knew about was the "rabies" cure. Thing was though, when they started bringing in sick animals for us to try and cure, they didn't have any sorta rabbis I ever herd of. They never turned, I don't think animals can even catch the plague unless it gets injected into them and even then they just die. Apparently they knew that too, because they started bringing in "live" ponies for us to "help" next.

That didn't work, not really, but we eventually worked out a sorta vaccination treatment. It wasn't as quick and painless as a shot and it could not cure ponies who had already turned, but it was something and after just two months it was down right miraculous!

The day after we celebrated that brake though was the day everything went crazy.

That morning I dropped my coffee mug and when I went looking for a broom to clean up the pieces I found and I swear I am not making a word of this up, I found a blue police telephone box in the broom closet! Nearly gave me a hart attack I was so surprised! Anyway, I figured it must have been one of the other teams, playing a dumb prank or maybe one of there experiments had gone all haywire and messed with our floor, but whatever it was, somepony was in breach of contract and I had every intention of seeing them get busted for scaring me like that. So I went up the the administration office and... and I saw... a body. Just a dead pony with a hole in her head and her brains splattered all over the back wall.

I don't know how long I just stood there starring, to shocked and scared to move, but eventually this human, though I didn't know what it was at the time, came out holding a gun. It looked at me and I ran. I think it tired to shot me, but I was screaming so loud I don't even know if I could have heard a shot if he did. The guards tried to stop me, but I just pushed them away. And that was when these ponies who I had spent the last couple of months living with, pulled out knives and came after me.

I don't even know how I got out of that facility, but things where going crazy, what with the shouting and the shooting and every pony trying to escape all at once, so maybe it was just dumb luck that of everpony, I just happened to be the one to make it out before everything got shut down.

By that point though, everything had started to fall apart and I was hardly anymore safe back in the world then I was locked underground with thous murders. At first I tired to contact the Princess, to let them know about the cure and about everything we had been working on, but when I got to Canterlot, they where there waiting for me at the gate.

I guess they prioritized making sure I didn't talk pretty highly, because I spent the next week on the run from them, looking for anywhere in Equestria where I could hide or tell somepony what I knew. Obviously that didn't work and in the end I had to jump though a portal just to avoid letting one of there human gunmen from finishing me off back near Ponyville.

* . * . *

Colgate sighed as she concluded, "As I said, there are parts I am just not ready to talk about, but that's most of it attest. When I saw that human, Mac? When I saw him the only thing I could think to prevent him from killing me or leaving me for dead was to try and convince him I knew something about a cure." She shock her head. "I don't think I did anything wrong. I only ever worked on a cure, but I don't know if the other's will see things like that. I... I trust you girls and the others from Ponyville, but I don't know if the humans will see it like that." She leans over and hugs the other two mares aging. "I just don't know what I would do without you all being here!"

D shoots Mac an annoyed look "say what you want, it works so far our wall have been breached only once (because some one fell asleep at his post), we've only had one sevearly wounded, our food stock is growing strong and, last I checked, we were completly sustaning" he said with a smug look

"is Scoots safe and does use her wings alot doing this 'Rouge' stuff" RD posed her question

"yes she would be very safe as long as she lets the Def pull aggro before she makes a move, and last time a saw her run the test course she used her wings to bounce from nape to nape and even tagged an instructor's neck before he knew she was out of the course" he states with a smile and sees RD smirk

with her fears quelled for the moment Rainbow relaxes and starts on her food but a smell caught her nose a smell coming from her glass, she sniffs it a few time before her eyes grow wide "this can't be" she whispers as she takes a sip "it's not quite the same but it's close," she hums as she takes a big swig "ahh, Sweet Apple Cider but how"

"well I provided the apples and AJ did the rest, Scoots told me how much you liked AJ's Cider"

Dr. G made room at the Table for Twilight and her new friend. "Have a seat and Enjoy! I'm Dr. Gibson better known as Dr. G." He then shook his head for a moment and turned back to D. "So you're telling me a young filly, the equivalent of a human child has potential as a foot soldier?" Dr. G asked.

* Fluttershy sat and listened a look of horror on her face. Rarity for her part was shocked. "I'm so sorry Darling. I mean I understand why you did what you did but does that mean that there is no actual cure for this nightmare?" Rarity asked looking down. "I mean I don't know where Sweetie Belle or my parents are or if they were infected a cure seemed like a way to save Equestria and maybe this human world." Rarity continued. She then looked at Colgate dead in the eyes. "Well you at this point are our only hope at ending this nightmare and even if there is no cure We will stand by your side because we are your friends!" Rarity said hugging Colgate back. (Can't lose hope now!) Thought Rarity quietly to herself.

*Nice Back story for Colgate. This should keep things interesting and give us things to work with like earning her trust developing a real cure etc. I like it.

D scoffs "Foot soldier?" D says shaking his head "no, we don't train cannon fodder we train people and ponies" D said with a gruff tone but he dropped it as quickly as it came "sorry, it's just I lost more that a few friends before we got where we are, and I'd like them to keep their names instead of Cannon fodder 1,2,3, etc"

"also she snuck out to the War exam, Pinkie and I didn't let her but she is one stubborn filly"

"Your still training the kids to fight for you." Mac snapped, eyes narrowing, "And in my book it dose not matter if you call them foot soldiers, cannon fodder or rouges, there still child soldiers." Mac tired to rise to his feet, but was once again forced down by his injury. "Its been two weeks since this all started, you must have taken a week to set things up and your already losing people in a compound large enough to be considered a fortress! And your talking about setting up a permanent, self stained community in New England? How many of you know how to farm this far north? What about how much arable land you will need to feed so many people?" His face grow steadily redder as a throbbing pain began to form in his skull. "Not that you will have so many mouths to feed after people start drooping like fly's since your putting more emphases on training children to fight monsters then on keeping them feed and sheltered!" Mac voice broke as he shouted the last few words, breaking into a fit of coughing.

* * *

Colgate's eyes watered as she clung to her friends and shock her head. "I am so sorry Rarity! But the vaccine can still help! If we can vaccinate the survivors we can stop the spread at least! If your family is still out there we can save them from being bitten or turned. It would not bring back the dead and I won't stop the hoard, but its something." Her voice dropped to a whisper almost to quite for the others to here as she added, "I have to do something."

D remains calm thought Mac triade then starts laughing darkly "well quite the detective we have here but tell me what makes you think we're training them to fight monsters, why not other survivors?" he says in a hamed up villian voice, he quickly dispells the tension in the air with a normal hardy laugh "you should have seen your faces, but seriously, we don't force anything on any one Pony or Human. the War, and Hand exams are wholly voluntary while yes we ask that all try to learn the Land class Farmer we have more than enough in the group to not require that children take any of the classes they can if they want to."

Fluttershy gave a fake smile to Colgate as she hugged Rarity and her. She kept processing what Colgate had said about everything. One thing kept coming up in her head. After Colgate let go Fluttershy turned to Rarity and gestured to come close "Rarity something's bothering me it was what Johnny had told me back when it was just us after killing some zombies. He said Fluttershy its like a type of super rabies. The best thing to do for them is to put them out of their misery and end their suffering." Fluttershy said. "I don't know if there's anything to that but if I'm uncertain. Then I'm sure Colgate will have at least ten times more of a hard time trusting anyone" * ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3R8tkvlAlk ) "HOLD IT" Johnny bellowed stepping into the kitchen "what you said doesn't add up D. You say they are trained to fight monsters but what happens if and when survivors come into play. I don't think you who has such a detailed class system not consider that sentient people and ponies may choose to take for themselves and attack a gated community such as yours claiming supplies as their own." Johnny walks over to Mac who is coughing up a storm and hands him a glass of water from the table. He turns back to D, points at him and says "what happens when that young man who lost his father kills another man who's trying to feed his son, wife, and daughter"